Concept

Racial Discrimination & Mental Health

Racial discrimination impacts the everyday life of youth of color and leaves lasting impacts on both their neurological development and subsequent adult life. Several studies have found higher incidence of mental health disorders in people of color, particularly in Black individuals. The most commonly studied are: depression, anxiety, PTSD, and psychological disorder, with PTSD having the highest prevalence. Other studies have solidified the fact that parents who have experienced racial discrimination have found their discriminatory history impacting the way that they raise and parent their children. Furthermore, there has been a high correlation in timing between killings of unarmed Black individuals in America and an increase in mental health emergency admissions in hospitals. These are just some examples of the major impacts of racism on people of color, no matter their age; while these studies recognize that it can be hard to determine causation rather than correlation, there is undoubtedly a lower overall quality of life in people of color as a result of racial discrimination. Understanding racial discrimination on systemic, interpersonal, and internalized levels is key to understanding its deepest impacts on people of color.

0

1

Updated 2026-05-02

Tags

Psychology

Social Science

Empirical Science

Science

Health Psychology

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

Biomedical Sciences

Clinical Practice of Psychology

Ch.14 Stress, Lifestyle, and Health - Psychology @ OpenStax

Psychology @ OpenStax

Introduction to Psychology @ OpenStax Course

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

OpenStax